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NAACP Death Penalty Fact Sheet

The death penalty is plagued with racial disparities.

In states across the country, African Americans are disproportionately represented on death row and among those who have been executed. Black people make up 13 percent of the population, but they make up 42 percent of death row and 35 percent of those executed. [i] In addition, many studies have found the race of the victim to affect who receives the death penalty, with homicides of white victims more likely to result in the death penalty.[ii]

Federal death row is no different. There are 63 people on federal death row, and 37 are people of color. Twenty-seven of these individuals are black.[iii] Several reviews of the federal death penalty have found troubling racial disparities in charging, plea bargaining, sentencing, and executions.[iv] For example, a review conducted by the United States Department of Justice found that 48 percent of White defendants were able to receive a sentence less than death through plea bargaining. Yet, only 25 percent of Black defendants and 28 percent of Hispanic defendants were able to plead guilty in exchange for life sentences.[v]

Innocent people have been sentenced to death and executed.

If innocent people can be convicted, sentenced to death, and executed, the criminal justice system cannot be trusted to reliably separate the innocent from the guilty. Between 1973 and 2016, 156 people who had been sentenced to death were subsequently determined to be innocent.[vi] During the same period, 1,142 people have been executed.[vii] This means that for every ten people executed, more than one person has been exonerated. This number does not include the people who were executed despite compelling evidence of innocence, or for whom evidence of innocence was found after execution.[viii] As Troy Davis’s case demonstrates, innocence does not protect people from execution.[ix]

The death penalty consumes an enormous amount of resources without improving safety.

There is no reliable evidence that the death penalty deters people from committing crime.[x] In fact, murder rates are higher in states that have capital punishment than they are in states without it.[xi] At the same time, the death penalty drains resources from the legal system, prisons, and law enforcement.[xii] Contrary to popular belief, the death penalty is much more expensive than a sentence of life without parole. Before Maryland abolished the death penalty, a detailed study showed that the average death penalty case cost $2 million more than a death-eligible case in which prosecutors decided not to pursue the death penalty.[xiii]

Most of the world has rejected the death penalty, and national support for the death penalty has plummeted.

Two-thirds of countries either have formally abolished the death penalty or have ceased to use it.[xiv] In 2016, the United States executed the sixth-highest number of people in the world. The only countries that executed more people were China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Pakistan.[xv]

In the United States, the number of executions and new death sentences are at historic lows. In 2016, 20 people were executed, the lowest number since 1991. Thirty death sentences were imposed, the lowest in the modern era of the death penalty.[xvi] Polls show that between 49 and 60 percent of the American public support the death penalty. These numbers are also the lowest in the modern era of the death penalty. [xvii]

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